Shadows Over Manhattan
by Five Minutes Til Bedtime
Summary: A shadow slips across Manhattan and Carter Kane sits and watches. At night he dreams of wings and feathers and green all around. One-shot.


Title: **Shadows Over Manhattan**

Summary: A shadow slips across Manhattan and Carter Kane sits and watches. At night he dreams of wings and feathers and green all around. One-shot.

Fandom: Percy Jackson X Kane Chronicles

Word Count: 1,898

* * *

Carter sees the shadow for the first time on the balcony of his room. He is tired and stressed and cannot quite believe it when he sees the dark shape of a winged horse flying low in the twilight, twisting and turning between skyscrapers in a graceful, carefree way that makes his heart tug.

He loses the shadow in the glare of the sun and blames the whole thing on a tick of the light. But he doesn't forget and he dreams of horses and feathers in the nights that follow before his ba once again escapes and a different reality sets in.

The second time Carter sees it, he is running with Sadie and a few of the older initiates towards the museum where their wards have tipped them off that an intruder has broken in. His blood is in his head and his forehead beads with sweat. For a moment, so brief he almost misses it, a shadow passes over him. He sees giant wings and his heart misses a beat. When he looks up – eyes searching frantically – he can't find the shadows source.

Sadie tugs him along, scowling at him as he tripped over his feet. He forces the shadow from his mind as the problem at hand draws him in. There is a museum to defend – shadows will have to wait.

And it is only as he stumbles into his bedroom that night – ragged and a little scorched – that he allows himself to think about it. He falls asleep on the balcony dreaming of the beat of wings and wing of his face.

The third time, Carter finally sees the rider. He'd gotten one of the shabtis to bring him a telescope and has spent each of his rare free moments searching the skies. He isn't sure what he is looking for until he sees black hair and green eyes. From the brief glimpse that he catches, he sees a lean body composed of sharp straight lines and startling colors.

He knows he should be suspicious but he isn't. He knows he should tell someone but he doesn't.

From then on, he dreams of green.

Anubis visits him sometime after, when Carter had spent one too many nights on the balcony and Sadie has started to hit him whenever his gaze wanders yet again to the sky. He sees concern in his sister's face and he thinks he feels guilty, but the feeling is distant and he can't help himself.

The god steps onto the roof where Carter had taken to escaping to whenever his room has become too crowded. He appears in his mortal form – tousled hair and brown eyes. Carter can see what has attracted his sister so much – Anubis is alluring. He feels more like a god than many deities that Carter has met.

He reminds Carter of the rider.

Anubis lays down beside Carter and together they watch the skies. It is the first time Anubis has ever tried to speak with Carter, rather than Sadie, but he feels calm. He's been feeling calm and distant about a lot lately. His mind is elsewhere.

They lay in silence for many hours. Anubis' presence beside him is calm and doesn't disturb him. Even in silence, Carter thinks he feels a sort of comradity with the young god.

Before the sun rises, Anubis turns his head to him. When he speaks, his voice is low and soft and fit for a funeral. "The others sent me here to warn you off this path, but I am the least able to condemn this. We are both seeking things we shouldn't, Carter Kane, and I will no more try to stop you than I can stop myself."

After that, Anubis simply disappears. Carter wants to say that he is frightened, that is rational and follows the gods warning – he does not. He doesn't not even consider it.

Anubis visits him often after that. They lay in silence and watch the skies. He thinks that the god understands him, even if he does not fully understand himself.

Carter tracks the horse and rider often through his telescope. He never catches more than a shadow of wings or a flash of green. He always catches green, though he can never make out the rider clearly in the moments when he spots him.

During the day, while the others are at school, Carter roams the streets with his head craned back. He doesn't keep track of where he wanders, but each day he drifts a little farther away from home. On the day when he finds himself standing with nothing by the sluggish water of the East River separating him from the banks Manhattan he sits there for a long time.

When he spots the shadow circle gracefully around the buildings on the other side, he thinks he begins to understand.

He knows that winged horse is a pegasus. He knows it belongs to Greece. He doesn't allow himself to contemplate what that means until after the battle with Apophis is won.

Then his mother draws his sister to the side and tells her that new things are coming – new _gods_. Things that aren't meant to be touched.

Sadie looks frightened beneath her tough façade. Carter has already chosen his path.

He sits on the bridge half way between Brooklyn and Manhattan. He doesn't dare cross – not yet – but neither does he run and scurry home. He spends the day there and the next and the next. His sister worries, the initiates stare at him when he finally comes home, Anubis sits silently beside him when he collapses onto the roof and cries until he sleeps. The god holds his hands and pets his hair.

"It's a hard path you've chosen, Carter Kane, but it's _your _path."

The next day, Carter crosses the bridge completely. He isn't sure what he is expecting, but when the god appears before him doesn't flinch. The god isn't one he knows, but he thinks he recognizes him anyway.

"You're not meant to be here, magician," Hermes tells him. His voice is flat and sad and his face is blank.

He ignores the gods words – he _knows _he's crosses a line he was never meant to touch – and says the first thing that comes to him.

"Where?" His voice cracks. He is desperate. He knows the god will understand him. He must.

The god stares at him for a long time. He is a being so sad that Carter can hardly bare to be near, though he weathers it because he must. He wonders what happened. This sadness was never in the myths, though the most important parts hardly ever were.

"There is a cabin where he goes when he wants to be alone. Go to the shore and head south until you feel it – you'll know it. Go now, young magician, and do come here again."

Then Hermes vanishes and Carter takes the good will as it is and quickly goes back across the bridge until his feet hit Brooklyn. Then he runs. He hails a cab and pays it until he is out of the city. Then he finds the shore and he walks south. The sun sinks slowly to the west and darkness creeps up from the ocean. He walks for many hours. When his shoes begin to pain him, he leaves them in the sand and continues on. He walks until pink touches the sea again and Ra slowly rises out of the Duat.

It is then that he feels it. His knees buckle and his skin tingles as a force, a _presence _that is so achingly familiar, crashes over him. He can _feel _him. The shadowy figure that has called to him so far away is here, now.

He casts his eyes around and sees a small cabin nestled in trees and sand. He struggles to his feet and stumbles, half delirious on this feeling, towards the building.

He does not make it half way before something black, huge, and feathered suddenly appears before him, causing him to stumble back. When he opens his eyes, he is staring into the bright eyes of the winged horse he has been spying on for so very long. The horse is looking at him intently, his face inches from Carter's, his massive black wings held aloft on his back, obviously wary.

But the horse is not alone. The rider sits on the pegasus's back, back straight, eyes intent. Carter feels his heart stop beating – he can't breathe.

He watches the rider slide smoothly off the horse's back, a motion so graceful it reminded him of Bast. The rider strokes the horse's neck and without a word the horse snorts and stomps off, somehow managing to convey disapproval and suspicion in every step. Carter doesn't so much as glance at it. His eyes are riveted on the being before him. The rider is several years his senior, built lean but strong, and so graceful it is almost painful to watch. He is dressed casually – jeans and a bright orange T-shirt – but he holds himself in a way that instantly reminds Carter of Horus.

Then the rider looks Carter in the eyes and the world becomes green.

Those eyes that captivated him from so far away are suddenly _there_. There is nothing else. In a single glance, Carter has become awed and reverent in way he had never been, even when his own mind and body housed a god. This stranger, this person was _more_. Carter couldn't explain it. He didn't know why or how, but this stranger whom he'd watched for so long consumed him a way that life amongst living breathing Egyptian gods and goddess never has.

He is all that Carter has been waiting for, all that he knew he would find, and more.

"I've been dreaming of you."

The words break the silence between them. For a moment Carter thinks that he has spoken – those are the words racing around his mind – but his stiff lips tell him it was not.

This stranger – the rider – has been dreaming of him.

"So have I," Carter manages. He is surprised when he voice comes out strong and steady.

The words that follow next are undoubtedly his own.

"I think I might love you."

The world is green. All he can see is green – a shade so bright and powerful and brilliant it shames all others simply by existing. The stranger draws closer and more and more of the world is consumed by green.

For a moment the stranger pauses, and Carter takes the time to notice his own breath mingling with the other's. He is so close. Carter know what is coming, but his body still jerks when he feels lips press against his own. Then all tension leaves his body and he melts into the other with a moan. The stranger laughs and they tumble to the sand. Carter is one his back, the stranger is draped over him. He drowns in the feeling of rightness and love and the color green.

"Good," the stranger says breathlessly when they part. "Because I _know _I love you."

The world is green and green and green. A shadow falls over him and Carter shivers.

"Carter Kane," he says quietly. "I've been watching you."

"Percy Jackson. I've been waiting."


End file.
